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The Bon Iver Grammy Quandary

By Jon Caramanica December 2, 2011 11:53 amDecember 2, 2011 11:53 am

Annabel Mehran for The New York Times

One of the final topics that came up over the course of many sit-downs with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver when I was working on my magazine profile of him was the Grammy Awards. Or more precisely, his discomfort with them, and his incredulity that he’d ever be in contention for one.

Tuesday night, shocking maybe only Vernon, he was nominated for four 2012 Grammy Awards, including a best new artist nod for “Bon Iver” — never mind that the 2011 self-titled Bon Iver album is actually the second Bon Iver album, and that Vernon has been releasing albums with various bands for more than a decade. The album was nominated for best alternative music album, and the song “Holocene” was nominated for record of the year and song of the year (a songwriter’s category). At the time of our talk, Arcade Fire had just won album of the year at the 2011 Grammys. Here are excerpts from our conversation:

So if you look at something like the Arcade Fire at the Grammys, is there a part of you that wants that?
I don’t want to speak disrespectfully to that because I saw their faces, and I met a couple of those guys before, and I think they deserve it more than anything. And I saw their faces up there, and I teared up a little bit. I mean I shouldn’t be proud, it has nothing to do with me, but it was this weird thing, like, ‘Holy cow, good for them.’ Just very happy for them. And there’s nothing about that that I want to pooh-pooh. You know I was thinking about that a couple of months ago, someone asked me that, and I was like “I would go and I would” — and I don’t think the Bon Iver record is the kind of record that would get nominated for a Grammy — “I would get up there and be like, ‘This is for my parents, because they supported me,’ ” because I know they would think it would be stupid of me not to go up there. But I kinda felt like going up there and being like: “Everyone should go home, this is ridiculous. You should not be doing this. We should not be gathering in a big room and looking at each other and pretending that this is important.” That’s what I would say.

You really feel that?
I really feel that way. Because no matter what . . . I don’t think Arcade Fire was compromised, but 98 percent of the people in that room, their art is compromised by the fact that they’re thinking that, and that they’re hoping to get that award. And who is that award given by? It’s like they think it’s literally handed down by the musical-history gods. And I don’t know who the voters are. Like, I have a friend who’s a voter who was like, “I had to be a voter because I don’t trust the other voters.” And I was like, “Me either!” And it’s just not important and people spend too much time thinking about it. Nick Cave wrote this great thing. I don’t know if you saw this, to the MTV people when he got nominated for an award. He just said you know. like, MTV, thank you so much for this nod, I really, really appreciate it. The fact that you play my music helps people hear my music and thank you so much for that. I would like to respectfully decline my nomination because my music has nothing to do with awards or competition or something. He said it in some sort of Nick Cave way. I read it and had goosebumps on my arms. It does mess with people. Do you play high school basketball to get laid or for the glory? And I guess I’m a glory guy. That’s a really bad pull-out quote probably, but I do really feel that way, while being able to say that I was tearing up for the Arcade Fire, and was so excited that that happened.

But it’s funny because you say that you don’t make the kind of record that would be nominated, and I actually totally disagree with that.
I can see that happening, but it just doesn’t make any sense to me.

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